Vanessa looked downward, shaking her head slightly.
But she refrained from reminding the other girl that she was the star.
“So, speaking of which, even without Kathy’s help with dialogue, we have a full day of shooting tomorrow,” Andrew said. He turned to Danni and gave her a smile. He was accustomed to being charming, she thought—and accustomed to women wanting him.
“I should see you home,” he said huskily. “You’re staying at Colby’s house, right?”
“Yes, but, that’s okay. Quinn will be along any minute,” she said.
She hoped she was telling the truth.
“We can’t just leave you,” Joe said.
“I’m fine—the bar is still open, right?” Danni said, smiling.
“Doesn’t feel right,” Andrew told her.
“We still have to pay the bill, and honestly!” Vanessa said. “I could use one more drink.” She shivered. “I’m going to need it to sleep tonight!” She flashed Danni a smile. “We’re in close quarters—budget, you know. We’re in one of those rooms they rent out for spring break—mattresses everywhere. Five girls to a room. Only Andrew has his own. Right now, though, I’m glad. Not so scary when we’re all together and our place is just a few steps away.”
“Ah, well, then, another round. One more for everyone!” Andrew said.
He gave Danni what she was sure he thought of as a sexy smile. She smiled back.
And she began to worry.
Where was Quinn?
Chapter 4
There was a building coming up on Quinn’s left. He headed toward it—and slipped into the little enclave before the entry.
He waited, wondering if a zombie-nun would walk by him. And wondering, too, if he could put it down with the Smith and Wesson he was carrying.
For a moment, all he heard was the beating of his heart. Then the footsteps came again. Cautiously. At last, he knew, the stalker was almost upon him. He drew his gun and stepped out—ready to shoot.
“Oh! Oh, my God!”
He quickly lowered his weapon. It was Officer Sandy Burnett.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.
“Following you!” she told him.
“Why?” he asked.
“Oh, I don’t think that Detective Mason trusts you. Or, perhaps, he doesn’t trust you not to spill information or get the city in an uproar. I don’t know. He just told me to keep an eye on you.”
Quinn returned his gun to the holster at the base of his spine, beneath his jacket. “I thought you were a lead on the case, too?”
“No, Mason is the lead—I’m on it because of Kathy Kennedy and the zombie-nun rumors,” she said. “We hadn’t paid any attention to her—I mean, you know, the Kennedy kids grew up here and they’re well known and everyone knows there’s creepy stuff all over that house…no one thought that Kathy was really attacked by a zombie nun!”
“But now, Davy has been saying the same thing. So what does Detective Mason think about that?”
“That Davy is an impressionable drunk and heard about Kathy somehow. I mean, easy enough. This is really kind of an insular small town.”
“There’s something up with zombie nuns,” Quinn said.
“I believe you—and even drunk Davy,” Sandy said. She sighed softly. “I’m sorry—Mason is a good detective. He has no imagination—which you think he would have acquired down here. Davy said that the zombie nun was walking alone. Mason just isn’t going to go for that. If he left room for a person behind the nun, pushing it around…I don’t know. I mean, you can’t really believe that a zombie nun mannequin is doing all this?”
“I think that a mannequin is being used, yes.”
“Well,” Sandy said. “I guess—I guess we’ll have to keep investigating. What do you suggest?”
“We need to find out where the zombie nuns are.”
“What? What zombie nuns?” Sandy asked him.
“There were five in all,” Quinn said. “They were used in a movie—Zombie Nuns of the Apocalypse. They went up for sale. Colby Kennedy bought one.”
“Oh, right, yes! That’s the one that chased Kathy into the road—according to Kathy,” Sandy said. “I thought she was—just crazy rambling. And I didn’t see any zombie nun when I locked the house up.”
“You were the one who saw that the house was locked?”
“Yes, I was there when the ambulance came; I sat with Kathy. Then, when the ambulance was gone with her and I’d called Colby, I locked up the house.”
“And you didn’t see the zombie nun?”
“Well, I didn’t go prying into the whole house! I looked around the parlor and the downstairs; shouted around to see if anyone was in the house, locked it up and left.”
“She told you that something had been after her—and you didn’t search the whole house?”
Sandy stiffened. “I told you—I went in. I looked around. I didn’t search his closets!”
He had to be careful, Quinn realized. Sandy was ready to be his friend. “I’m sorry,” he said softly.
“We’re a damned fine police department,” Sandy said.